THE owners of a Kendal menswear shop have been ordered to pay compensation to a woman assistant they dismissed unfairly.

Denise and Jonathan Blacow, owners of the family business in the Westmorland Shopping Centre, claimed Lynne Holmes had left of her own accord.

However, an employment tribunal in Carlisle ruled that, even though she was about to leave anyway, to take up the post of secretary at Staveley primary school, they had indeed sacked her without good reason.

Mr and Mrs Blacow were ordered to pay her £451 in lost wages and compensation.

Mrs Holmes, who was an assistant manageress in the shop, told the tribunal she had always got on well with the Blacows until they discovered that she had been offered the job at the school.

She said she planned to go on working at the shop for as long as possible, before formally handing in her notice a week before her new job started on January 10.

She told Mr Blacow informally on December 3 that she would be leaving and he did not react.

The mood changed when, on December 14, Mr and Mrs Blacow discovered that Mrs Holmes, while off sick, had visited the school to meet the pupils and staff.

First Mr Blacow telephoned her at home in an "offensive tone", and then his wife telephoned in an "off-handed manner".

They claimed that, by visiting the school, she had been working - something she should not have done while off sick.

Mr Blacow told her to put the shop keys through his home letter box, and then arrived at her door with her cards, saying he was not going to pay her while she was working for someone else, Mrs Holmes said.

In evidence Mrs Blacow denied that either she or her husband had dismissed Mrs Holmes.

She claimed Mrs Holmes - "a very good employee" - had resigned over the telephone.

She said that Mrs Holmes had accepted the job at the school 17 days before the Blacows heard she would be leaving.

"She should have let us know out of courtesy," she said.

She said Mrs Holmes' preliminary visit to the school amounted to work because, by meeting the staff and seeing how the secretary's job was done, she was being trained.

"She was obviously trying to hide something and keep us in the dark," Mrs Blacow said.

"She had been for half a day's training while claiming to be off sick.

We felt we were being constantly lied to."

The full reasons for the tribunal's decision in favour of Mrs Holmes will be given later.